Broken brewer :(

[Colo]

Hello All,

Hoping to get some last ditched words of wisdom that can maybe lift my spirits. I have been brewing for years now without any issues, found a recipe I loved and kept turning this over like a homemade factory. Went on a month holiday and didnt put a brew down for another couple months after I got back (so 3 month break). Since this point I have had 9+ brews which I have had to pour down the sink seemingly all with the same infection.

Things I have tried

• Replaced my whole kit...everything
• Tried buying all my ingredients from a different supplier (hoping to get different batches)
• Soaked everything in bleach and sat in direct sunlight (have done this everytime before putting a brew down). Then cleaned with solution before use.
• Used filtered water from a different outlet in my house.
• And my last & current back to basics effort (see attached picture) or last hurrah as it may be because this is costing me a fortune for no output. A wheat kit with a kg of brewers mix (Light dry Malt, Dex, Maltodex) some dry hops and the kit yeast which will most likely be a very robust ale yeast.

The infection

When the infection first popped up it appeared as big brown bubbles and dead yeast on the surface of the brew with a slight "oil slick" looking film and had a sour after taste. It looked really sick and didnt taste too crash hot. Since then the infection doesnt seem to take hold as badly, however the issue may also be with me. Since I have seen & tasted so many infected brews, I cant actually remember what a healthy brew is meant to look like and how its mean't to taste pre-carbonation?

So please take a look at the picture and tell me what you think. The two bubbles at the bottom of the photo worry me and there is some dead yeast floating on the surface and in suspension, I really cant remember if this is normal or not. To taste, it tastes fine not much of a strong beer flavour or smell at all though. After you swallow and let the remnants sit on your taste buds you do get a slight sour taste coming through...again I cant remember if this is normal or not.

Any help/advice on anything I have mentioned would be much appreciated. I live in Brisbane maybe somebody could come around and taste it, just to help dampen my insanity!

 

[Cube]

I don't see an infection. Looks like a fermented out beer

 

[Dazzbrew]

X2

 

[paulyman]

X3. Photo looks fine.

Talk us through your cleaning in some more detail. Cleaning with bleach and then leaving to dry sounds fine, I use PBW rather than bleach as I've heard it doesn't play* nice with metal*. What do you mean by cleaned with solution before use? Do you mean starsan?

*edit

 

[Grott]

I'm with you Cube, looks pretty ok to me. Hope the 9 + you tossed out didn't look like that Colo, would be such a waste.

 

[Grott]

Colo, the drying of the bleach after soaking is not a good idea, you should drain it off then rinse throughly before drying. Prior to brewing use a sanitiser, starsan has a top reputation and doesn't need to be rinsed off.
Cheers

 

[GalBrew]

X5. Looks fine to me!

 

[paulyman]

Colo, the drying of the bleach after soaking is not a good idea, you should drain it off then rinse throughly before drying. Prior to brewing use a sanitiser, starsan has a top reputation and doesn't need to be rinsed off.
Cheers

Good catch, I read it as bleach, rinse then dry. But that needs to be clarified as well.

 

[Coodgee]

x6 looks like a very cleanly fermented brew. I've had plenty of brews with all sorts of flotsam hanging around after the krausen has dropped.


with regards to oil slicks on top of the beer, I have that right now on a beer that was dry hopped with 50 grams of galaxy flowers and it tastes fine, I think it is just the hop oils.

I am in Brisbane and would volunteer to have a taste. but I am going on holidays on saturday. do you live anywhere near greenslopes?

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Bottling or kegging? like the rest I'm cringing thinking you have been hastily ditching...
Tasting pre ferment and after ferment is normal practice.
An infection should be obviouse as it will taste and smell fowled, soured wine vinigar etc.
But i have had many brews that were temped to ditch only from clashing flavors maybe from experimentation combinations of new tried ingrediences. But with a few kegs to play with they got kegged anyway. They were ok, drinkable but changed with time to better. Then after some time they get a thumbs up.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

and yeah, I love the funny quotes from brewers emotions about letting bleach come anywere neer there brewing equipment.

So many less toxic and better solutions than bleach. :icon_vomit:

no direct sunlight needed or wanted in brewing.

 

[Brewsta]

x100 I think you'll find Colo,

the brown stuff around the edges is completley normal & in my opinion the more the better, it's proof that the the wort was aerated enough & the yeast were doing their job. If you want to know what an infection looks like google hombrew infections / images.

it's a pitty you turfed them…

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

and yeah, I love the funny quotes from brewers emotions about letting bleach come anywere neer there brewing equipment.

So many less toxic and better solutions than bleach. :icon_vomit:

no direct sunlight needed or wanted in brewing.

There is nothing wrong with bleach if rinsed and left to dry in the sunlight

Sunlight does have some sterilizing properties due to the UV

 

[paulyman]

and yeah, I love the funny quotes from brewers emotions about letting bleach come anywere neer there brewing equipment.

So many less toxic and better solutions than bleach. :icon_vomit:

no direct sunlight needed or wanted in brewing.

I simply said I don't use it, as an all grain brewer who has copper elements it isn't for me, that isn't based on emotions that is chemistry. I did originally write chlorine instead of metal, not sure why, must have been the couple of Rogers I've had tonight?

Grott didn't say he didn't use it or try to convince the OP not to use it. He simply wanted to ensure the OP thoroughly rinsed equipment afterwards. This advice would be sound for PBW, Napisan etc also not just bleach.

So I'm at a loss as to where this comment came from or how it is at all constructive?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If bleach is rinsed with hot water the chlorine evaporates very quickly

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I wasnt refering to anything or to anyone. :unsure:
Other than brewers who have expressed thier distain at the use of bleach. Espesially in plastic fermenters. (shrugs)

 

[Cube]

bleach and vinegar mix can be used as a no rinse sanitiser. Just have to know what you are doing at the right amounts. I used it for years with no ill tastes before moving to star san.

 

[Colo]

Hello All,

Thank you for all the responses, to answer some of the questions...

The fermenter is only placed in the sun when full of water/bleach, as I know the sun also kills some types of bugs. I do this the day before I put a brew down, before I start the brew I remove the bleach and clean everything with a sanitizing solution and then rinse thoroughly. Nothing is left to dry and there are no chemical odours once I'm done. Note, the bleach thing was never my typical practice...it's the situation that has brought on the insanity.

Fermentation is never carried out in direct sunlight, I always cover the fermenter with a blanket to block out light with only the air lock visible.

One of the basis of my suspicions was the behaviour of the yeast I use, wb-06. While I've used many Belgium whit liquid yeasts (pre infection days) ild often use wb-06 because it was cheaper and still made a nice brew. Ive used the wb-06 yeast more times than I can count. Because I live in QLD one of the tell tale signs of this yeast is your brew has a slight banana/bubblegum smell/taste. During fermentation the gas coming out of the airlock had the banana smell as it should, however by end of fermentation I would pour a glass and the smell/taste was completely gone there would be dead yeast floating in the brew and bubbles had started to form on the surface. While it didn't look as sick as the first few infected brews, it didn't seem right and didn't seem to taste right. Rinse and repeat that outcome many times with me trying different things each time and you get 9+ brews down the sink.

But now as I have stated, I can't actually remember what's right or wrong...apart from the smell/taste of the wb-06 yeast. Has anybody had experience with this yeast in warmer temperatures?

Im thinking of bottling maybe 10 bottles of the latest brew just to see how it comes out when carbonated.

 

[Rocker1986]

I agree with everyone else, the photo in the first post looks perfectly fine to me, I'd be bottling the whole lot. All my brews look pretty much like that once fermentation finishes. They do taste different out of the FV, probably mainly because the beer is warm and flat, as opposed to chilled and fizzy. It's also very young beer. Perhaps you're perceiving something that isn't there due to the belief that it's infected when it may not be.

I have not used that yeast myself, though, so I wouldn't know what it's meant to taste like. Wheat beers aren't a style I enjoy very much.

 

[paulyman]

I wasnt refering to anything or to anyone. :unsure:
Other than brewers who have expressed thier distain at the use of bleach. Espesially in plastic fermenters. (shrugs)

Fair enough.